854 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and a true bulb left alive. Considerable loss of weight has resulted. Ten 

 seeds weigh one ounce, whereas it would take eighteen bulbs of this size to 

 do so. 



This loss of weight will continue until foliation begins, by which time 

 the bulb will only weigh a quarter of the seed from which it sprang. 



The drawing, fig. 191, A, shows that it is possible for two embryos to exist 

 in one seed of Hymenocallis concinna [Baker , sp. now] Among the 

 Amaryllids I have never previously noticed such an occurrence, and I 

 believe it to be unique in the literature of these plants. 



The arrangement of the ovules in Hymenocallis concinna is quite 

 typical of the genus as described by Bentham and Hooker — a single pair 

 of ovules lying at the base of each cell, or six ovules in all to each ovary. 



The minute threads by means of which the ovules adhere to the 

 placenta, and which constitute the only direct communication with the 

 stigma, would seem to be so arranged that the whole of the ovules would 

 become impregnated contemporaneously, on the adhesion of a sufficient 

 number of virile pollen grains to the stigma. 



Hence there does not appear at first sight to be any reason why each 

 ovule should not produce a seed. Yet it is a fact that such sequence does 

 not occur in the Amaryllids with bulbiform seeds. Such plants have a fixed 

 number of ovules and a fixed number of seeds (subject to very small 

 fluctuation) ; yet there is often a great dissimilarity between the number of 

 seeds and of ovules. 



In this Hymenocallis the difference is not great, four seeds being 

 produced by the six ovules in the few fruits I have raised. 



Although I believe that every ovule is impregnated simultaneously, yet 

 the possibility of seed production must be held to be limited, and I believe 

 that we must seek in the structure of the tissues below the ovary the cause 

 of such limitations. 



It would seem as though the carriage of nutriment to the embryo from 

 the bulb of the parent was either limited by the structure of such tissues 

 to a certain number of channels, or that all the nutriment became, after 

 impregnation, quickly diverted to the strongest embryos, and that the rest 

 suffered from strangulation or starvation. The appearance of the seeds in 

 certain Crinums, Hippeastrums, &c. lends weight to this supposition, for 

 we find in the same fruit seeds of varying sizes ; some of great vitality, 

 others of less ; some in which the embryo is just alive, strong enough to 

 germinate, but not to carry it through the weaning period ; others in 

 which the germ is already dead, but yet has evidently grown at one time 

 out of the ovule stage. 



If anyone feels inclined to deny the contemporaneous impregnation of 

 all the ovules in k one ovary, he is met by this difficulty, that if it were 

 possible to effect partial impregnation it would also appear possible to effect 

 diverse impregnation in the same flower ; that is to say, that species " A," 

 known to be virile under the pollen of species "13" and of species " C," 

 could have one lobe of a stigma impregnated with " B " pollen, and 

 another lobe with "C" pollen, and produce, in the same fruit, seeds of 

 diverse hybrids. 



My own experiments have satisfied me that in every case impregnation 

 of all the ovules is contemporaneous. I have very often mixed the pollen 



